30 Sep 2011

This Cinabar this caterpillar was waving itself about. A
knowledgable visitor tells us they tend to do this when they are
hosting the larva of a parasitic fly.

Ref: DB1_20110814_1438_044 Cinnabar moth caterpillar on Ragwort leaf waving head end about (crop).jpg

2 minutes later, without at the time making any connection, we took
this image of such a parasitic fly nearby. These flies feed on nectar,
but lay their eggs inside various (it seems mostly moth) caterpillars
which the subsequent larvae eat from the inside. Yuck!
We can't be sure of a connection, but we will be watching.

29 Sep 2011

Several days of no kestrels was followed by 'our' young male
('Kevin') almost now in all male feathers. He spent the best of
half an hour preening on the conifer tip, here enjoying an
extravagant stretch.

2 minutes later he suddenly appeared on the top of a disused
telephone pole 50 metres from the tree, and spent a few minutes
cleaning and scratching himself before flying straight back to the tree-top
perch. He stayed about 15 minutes before making this leisurely
departure.

Ref: D01_20110817_1254_310-313 Kestrel male maturing take off from Conifer top at SE corner 1-4 of 5 (approx montage).jpg

28 Sep 2011

Pheasant are better flyers than we like to think.
Here this male has just landed on the tree-stump top and gives us
an edge-on view of the separate primary feathers streaking down against
the underside of his wing.

27 Sep 2011

Even a little bit of rain brings out the slugs and snails (NOT a
montage). The 'orange tower' that the slug has climbed is a
segment of spoiled apple.

Ref: D35_20110804_2305_019_FB4 3 snails and leopard slug.jpg

26 Sep 2011

This red kite made a nice if distant flyby. This is an arbitrary montage of 3 images.
We unusually have the top of the bird as it banked, but this time no wing tags
to report the colours/numbers of. Some of you tell us of dozens of kites at once,
but we are delighted with just the odd one for now.

20 Sep 2011

One of our Hazel bushes thrashing about and there was a Grey
Squirrel grabbing the unripe nuts and carrying them off to eat.
He saw us, sneered suitably, and parked himself on the bark of an
adjacent oak tree to eat his prize. We picked some of the nuts
before it had the lot, but couple of days later under this tree
was found a pile of about 10 more bitten open hazel nuts

19 Sep 2011

For a few days we have seen adult blackbirds carrying off bits of
food instead of eating them on the spot, and now we see this
strange apparition. An expert tell us the distressed tail is
probably the result of 'feather mite' infestation from the nest
- the next moult will restore healthy feathers.

3 days later we catch possibly the same juvenile Blackbird
again, this time begging from an adult who was flying off.

Ref: D45_20110807_1806_266_FB1 Blackbird juvenile begging.jpg

18 Sep 2011

We really enjoy Grasshoppers, although a combination aging ears
and a generally noisier environment means that we can rarely hear
their stridulation. This as a Lesser Marsh Grasshopper. Its just
about invisible unless you see it land.

17 Sep 2011

A muggy night 2-3 August 2011 got us up in time to see Bats on
the CCTV at about 04:30 - too dark to photograph them because you
can't see them at all. By about 04:50 the lightening sky lured us
out with the camera set up for Bats, and found 2 species flying
around the house.
We think the smaller of the species are Natterer's Bats -
three moments of one bat at about 5 frames/sec timed from
bottom upwards.

This is a Brown Long-eared bat zooming past an upper floor
window leaving his shadow on the wall.

Ref: DB1_20110803_0458_147 Brown Long-eared Bat in flight (crop).jpg

16 Sep 2011

A common Darter Dragonfly using an angled perch
hanging over the edge of a pond.

Ref: DF1_20110731_1244_230 Common Darter Dragonfly (crop).jpg

Such perches often encourage dragonflies to perch, fly off for a few
seconds, and then return to exactly the same place. This makes it
possible to catch the approach and landing.
These images are irregularly timed (frames 1, 2 & 5 from a set of 6) that
give the right impression.

Ref: DF1_20110731_1245_302+303+306 Common Darter Dragonfly coming in to land on tip of stick 1+2+5 of 6 (irregularly timed montage).jpg

15 Sep 2011

The chaffinches are still feeling very territorial, here chasing
robin from the tree-stump top

12 Sep 2011

This wren popped up for a moment with an insect in its beak, and
flew off into the back of the overgrown lilies at the back of the
main pond. We have spotted them around the back over a couple of
weeks and are fairly sure they are now feeding chicks on a nest.

11 Sep 2011

Along the bridleway we were delighted to see 6 Mistle thrushes (a
new species this year for us) on the high voltage wires. This one
stayed after 4 of them had left, and provided this opportunity
for a take-off shot. The montage is accurate except that the
left-most bird's feet should be right where the launching birds feet are.

Ref: DF1_20110723_1021_018-022 Mistle Thrush taking off from wire along bridleway to North 1-5 of 5 (montage @7fps).jpg

10 Sep 2011

We surprised this moulting juvenile male kestrel (and him us) on
the top of a quite new but now disused telephone pole on our
South boundary. He watched us for a few seconds, realised we were
not going away, and decided to quietly leave himself. You get a
good view of his crazy mix of juvenile and adult tail feathers.

A couple of hours later he was back on the post, this time having a preen that lasted
about 30 minutes in the lowering sunlight. Here is a little impression 'photo booth' style.
This was taken using a fixed tripod and long-lens setup though and open window
about 50m from the pole.

08 Sep 2011

In the morning around 9 a.m. our moulting juvenile male Kestrel
caught a rodent somewhere and flew right by us with it. We
expected him to vanish into the distance, but the just moled
field had a half metre high lump of clay about 50m from us which
it landed on, battled a bit with the prey, and finally ate it.
Here is our impression.

Ref: DF1_20110724_0908_117+139+157 Kestrel juvenile male flying by with rodent in talons then landing to eat it 02+07+12 of 13 (montage).jpg

07 Sep 2011

Blackcaps are new here this year. This female was in the top of a
3m high conifer well used as a singing post by many birds.

Ref: DF1_20110725_1702_056 Blackcap female on conifer top (crop).jpg

06 Sep 2011

After many months of mostly placid behaviour, the fieldmice (wood mice) have
started leaping about at the moved site. We judge this to be mating
show-off behaviour triggered by a bit of rain improving the food supply.

05 Sep 2011

This pair didn't have it all their own way - another individual
(probably a male) fluttered around them but they ignored him.

Ref: DF1_20110727_1340_106 Gatekeeper Butterflies mating on thistle down with another fluttering round the pair.jpg

04 Sep 2011

When its warm enough with some sunshine, we get to see several species
of butterfly mating, often first spotted in awkward flight while
coupled. Here a pair of Common Blue butterflies on some thistle
seed heads.